Holiday Cheer
by BHS
Summary: Kyoko and Mami exchange Christmas presents. A little one-shot romantic thing for Rosenal on DA, the undisputed master of KyoMami fic. Yuri, in case that wasn't obvious.


**Holiday Cheer**

_For Rosenal, with thanks for the inspiration._

_Thump._

"Shit!"

The hissed expletive cut through the stillness and quiet of the winter's night like a knife. Well, technically it was now a very, very early winter's morning, but the silence was shattered just the same. Hardly appropriate for Christmas morning, to say the least.

Kyoko bit her lip and fought the urge to jump up and down and swear some more. Her foot had caught the edge of the balcony as she had vaulted up over it… the weight of the damned box had thrown off her balance. _Serves me right for not taking the stairs… but Mami would hear me opening the front door. Dunno how the hell she can sleep so heavy and still always catch me whenever I come in after a late night…_

Grimacing, she concentrated her magic on her foot. A soft red glow enveloped her boot, and she felt the pain in her toes lessening. It wasn't gone, of course, merely postponed for a while. Kyoko knew enough to never bother with the "shut-off switch", as she called it, unless it was absolutely necessary, and an injury this minor hardly warranted the use of that much power.

Gingerly she stepped forward, crossing the snow-covered patio and trying to stay off her bad foot. The patio door was just inches away, and she knew she could probably open it without Mami hearing. All the effort and sleepless nights were about to be worth it, if only she would stay asleep… Just in case, she cast a muffling spell on the sliding-glass door and the surrounding area. _No sense risking it squeaking and blowing the whole thing._

Success. The door slid open without a sound. Kyoko grinned and slipped through the door, being especially careful not to bump the box against the edges of the frame. Its contents had already been jostled enough on the way here… frankly, it would be a miracle if the whole thing were still presentable and intact.

She allowed herself a relieved breath as she slid the door closed and flipped the lock. Kyoko dropped her transformation, her battle costume phasing back into her frayed old pajamas. It was done, it was finally done, and Mami would never-

"Merry Christmas, Kyoko," said a voice from the darkness over by the couch.

_"Jesus Christ!"_ Kyoko's cry of shock would have woken up the whole floor had it not been for the muffling spell. Her heart threatening to claw its way out of her breast, Kyoko spun around as a lamp flared, throwing spots into her eyes with the sudden brightness.

There sat Mami, in her favorite fluffy white bathrobe and fuzzy slippers, holding an empty teacup in one hand and the lamp's chain in the other. As always, her expression was hard to read… she was far too good at disguising raging anger as prim annoyance, amusement as disapproval, and any number of other emotions as something completely other. It was a habit she had only picked up in the months since they had started living together… sometimes Kyoko wondered if Mami had learned it from her. The thought was unsettling.

She didn't have the luxury of being unsettled at the moment, however, as she was still fighting to regain her breath. "Mami, the _hell…_ I've told you… I hate it when you do that…!"

Mami pressed her lips together in a very thin smile. "And I've told you how I hate it when you go somewhere without telling me. What is it this time, Kyoko?"

_Damn!_ Her only chance was to feign innocence. "Dunno what you're talkin' about."

"You've been sneaking off at night for more than a week, always at the same time, and in the morning there are wet bootprints around the inside and outside of the patio door. There's never any money missing from my wallet or our savings, so I know you're not buying food… which means either you're doing something that doesn't require money, or you're stealing things." She set down the teacup in its saucer on the end table. "Again," she added.

_Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn!_ Kyoko tried not to let it show on her face, but Mami had her pegged. "Listen, Mami, it's not what you think…"

"What is it, then?" asked Mami with infinite calm.

"Er…"

There was that thin smile again. "I have a feeling you're not delivering toys to all the good little children in Mitakihara…"

Kyoko had to chuckle weakly at that. "Uh, no. You know me, I ain't the altruistic type."

"'Altruistic'? My, we _are_ reading those advanced vocabulary books, aren't we?"

_Oh shit, she's being sarcastic._ That almost always meant that Mami was seriously annoyed about something. "Listen, Mami-" she began again.

"So what's in the box?"

Beads of sweat broke out on Kyoko's forehead. She was painfully aware that Mami could see the corner of the package poking out behind her back. _Maybe if I play dumb some more, she'll laugh it off…_ "What box?"

"Really, Kyoko, this is pathetic. Just tell me, so we can both put this foolishness behind us and go back to bed… Your answer will determine whether or not we'll be sleeping in the same room."

Kyoko swallowed audibly. Forget the Tiro Finale, now Mami was bringing out the _seriously_ big guns. "L-Look, don't be mad. I just wanted to- Dammit, Mami, I didn't know what else to do! I can never tell what else you like, and I didn't have enough money to buy one, and asking _you_ for money would have ruined it-"

"Ruined what, exactly?"

"The surprise." Kyoko's cheeks started to turn red as she brought the package out from behind her back. "I just wanted to- oh, hell. Merry Christmas, Mami."

It was a fairly large square box, a little beaten-up around the edges from being hauled across the city, and clumsily wrapped in shiny red and green paper, held down somewhat haphazardly with pieces of clear tape.

Mami rose from the couch and walked over to her, her face still unreadable, her eyes locked on the package. Slowly she took it from Kyoko's hands and set it on the table, then delicately began to unwrap it, taking far more care in doing so than Kyoko had to wrap it in the first place.

Kyoko's cheeks flushed warm. "Just rip it open, already."

"Be patient," said Mami. Slowly and deliberately she removed the pieces of tape, somehow managing not to tear the wrapping paper, which she smoothed out carefully, working out the creases and wrinkles…

"Goddammit, you're doing that on purpose!" Kyoko fumed, stamping her foot… and then she cringed, for the foot she'd brought down was, of course, the one that had gotten caught on the edge of the balcony.

"Language, Kyoko." With agonizing slowness, she slid the box out of the wrapping paper, slit the tape holding it closed with one fingernail, and opened the lid…

Inside the box sat a spectacularly decorated Christmas cake, frosted white with carefully sculpted pink flowers rimming the edges. It was a little smushed in spots, yes, but still a sight to behold. Lines of carefully applied green icing spelled out a message on the top in both English and kanji: _Have a blessed Christmas, filled with holiday cheer. _Mami recognized the style immediately; it was from a very upscale bakery almost two miles away.

"I kept going out to look for one," muttered Kyoko, looking sheepishly down at her bare, bruised foot, "but all the ones I found here in the neighborhood were… they weren't right. They weren't perfect. So I started going farther and farther out, and when I saw this one I… I knew it was the right one. I had to have it."

"So you stole it?" Mami's voice was still very even.

"Yeah."

"Kyoko…" Mami slid her chair back and stood up with a sigh. She placed both hands on the other girl's shoulders.

Kyoko blinked rapidly, still staring at her feet. "Go ahead and yell at me. I know the lecture already, okay? 'You don't have to steal food anymore, we should hold ourselves to a better standard and-'"

The rest of Kyoko's sentence went unsaid as Mami lifted her chin in one hand. Her eyes were shining in the lamplight. "You're so silly," she said.

And then her lips were pressing against Kyoko's, and Kyoko was melting into her like a marshmallow into a cup of hot chocolate, the warmth of her body driving away the last of the winter chill from outside…

When they parted, Kyoko was the first to speak. "So, uh… you like it, then…?"

This time, the smile that spread across Mami's face was genuine. "I'm a little annoyed that you felt you had to steal it to keep it secret from me… but yes, I like it. We'll enjoy it together."

Kyoko returned the smile with one of her own and gave Mami a playful squeeze. "I bet you thought I wouldn't get you anything, didn't you?"

"I'm surprised, yes. That's very altruistic of you."

"Yeah. Merry Christmas and all that… now let's get to bed, it's cold in here."

"Not yet."

"Huh?" Kyoko blinked at her. "C'mon, Mami, I don't even have my slippers on…"

"I need to give you _your_ present."

Her face turned nearly as red as her hair. "My… Mami, you didn't have to-"

"Just watch."

Mami took three steps backward and let her bathrobe fall off her shoulders… and somehow Kyoko turned even redder, as the only things Mami was wearing underneath were wrappings of satin red ribbons, tied with a bow right that rested right between her ample breasts.

For one of the only times in her life, Kyoko was at a loss for words. "I… I…"

Mami just smiled. "I thought about using my magic for this… but I thought this way would be more special."

"Y-You-" Kyoko stammered, trying to force her mouth to work right. She had seen Mami naked before, of course, and they had done _things_ together often enough, but she never imagined that the sweet, soft-spoken, polite-to-a-fault Mami Tomoe would… "Holy _hell!_" she managed to sputter out.

"Sssh." Mami's finger pressed against her lips. "Language, Kyoko. Remember what day it is."

At that Kyoko's face broke into a wide, fanged, sheepish grin. "You're one to talk, you kinky little- Okay, _now_ can we go back to bed? I wanna unwrap my present."

Mami giggled softly. "Of course. Merry Christmas, Kyoko."

"Merry Christmas, Mami."

**END.**


End file.
